Dreams In Flight

I received an invite from TIME for the Singapore Arts Festival opening performance La Fura dels Baus. Terence and Gideon came along. It was a "Free admission" event but because TIME was the magazine sponsor, guests of TIME got grand stand seats - which was great! Bumped into Ewe Leong as well... Anyways, the show got off to a pretty slow start with a shadow performance depicting daily routines like "eating", "watching" etc. Just when I was getting worried that the two boys were getting fidgety, the spectacular wheel of red and gold appeared! Magically suspended in mid-air, the wheel hovered above the crowd and the sight was simply awesome (though I was wondering at the same time what would happen if the wheel fell). And then there was this amazing aerial human net which suspended magically in the air as showers of fireworks lit the night sky. I think each one of us had different imaginations of what each act depicted. Gideon, for sure, believed that the wheel was from Planet Naboo and the human bodies on the net were actually Snow Troopers (for those who don't know, the planet and troopers are from Star Wars :-). As for me : Wow! I never got this close to fireworks! I wasn't even expecting fireworks...

Vintage Virgin

Was having breakfast at YahKun on Friday morning when I saw racks of colourful dresses being carted out to the atrium of B1 Raffles City. I passed by and saw signs being put up - Dust Bunny Vintage, Granny's Day Out etc. Hmmm I'd better check it out before the lunch crowd comes. So I sneaked out of the office at 11am and sinfully bought some items from Dust Bunny. I will not say how much was spent. I quickly called Jemej to inform her of my incredible find. I never owned any vintage outfits but always thought they were so one-of-a-kind and if worn properly, they were really pretty. The bag caught my eye first - I felt so Audrey Hepburn carrying it (or was it the "mirror trick"!?). Then I went on to the rack of dresses and voila... I was back in the office by 11.30am with Julian proclaiming that I must've spent too much money on "yellow (stained) armpit" dresses :-( Well, they were both black - thankfully :-)

A Day for Mums

Mother's Day is simply too commercialised to me. But still, we we were part of that whirlwind of Mum's Day activities which has sucked in many Singaporeans - lavish gifts, dinners with hiked prices and sudden surge of ads everywhere - each proclaiming the most thoughtful of gifts for mum.

As a mum myself, the best gift on this day is simply the joy of a healthy, happy child - my little monster G! I think the best gift this Mother's Day was him stopping his crying routine in the mornings when I drop him off at school. For some reason the past couple of weeks, he managed to hold back tears, say goodbye to me and even manages a loud morning greeting to his teacher! My gift from Gideon : a lovely card he made in school and a Mother's Day song.

Anyways, we figured our Mum will feel left out if we didn't do something special - so we had one of her favourite buffets at Swissotel Merchant Court's Ellenborough Market Cafe.

Thanks Mum for all you've done for us! Now I know what matters as a mother - not lavish gifts; just the simple pleasures of being with family and knowing your children are happy :-)

Gideon's 5th

No big bash this year since we just took a holiday in Bali. Sunday, 29 April was spent at China Square where we bought him his choice of Star Wars figurines. That evening was spent with Mum and Sis' family at East Coast Parkway where he could enjoy kiddy rides.

His classmates celebrated with him the following day at school. This year, Gideon decided on a Super Heroes cake instead of Star Wars (phew! Star Wars is going to be tough otherwise).

Happy Birthday Super Hero!

Bali Beautiful

The 4-day Bali trip was wonderful! We had been planning this for the longest time. Since the same 3 couples went to Bali almost 8 years ago, we had always been saying we should do the same thing again. We finally did it. This holiday was relaxing and absolutely fun. It was late Friday when we arrived in Bali, after a one-hour flight delay due to a computer outage at the Jetstar counter. Still, our spirits were high and we were simply looking forward to the villa we were going to call home for the next few days.

Seminyak Suites didn't disappoint. Our 3-bedroom villa was clean, contemporary and HUGE. Each bathroom is the size of a regular hotel room (or larger). I took these pictures from the website (better quality) but the real thing was definitely not far from what you see from the web images. Russell and Gideon spent most of their time in the pool. Their Gameboy was of course the other important companion throughout the trip.

For the adults, shopping was mainly done at Surfer Girl - Chris and Terence picked up some surf gear which were supposedly cheaper than in Singapore. The girls took some time away from the boys for a stroll along Seminyak just outside the villa. There were some interesting shops and we of course landed some good bargains.

The beach is just at the end of the Seminyak stretch. We spent one morning there and were of course swarmed by peddlers - from manicures and massages to caps and clips. Angie and myself of course lazed under the parasols for Kodak moments :-)

Jimbaran had transformed since our last trip there. It is now a thriving stretch of seafood restaurants. When we were last there 8 years ago, I recall only a few restaurants and they would pull tables and chairs onto the beach if customers wanted to eat with their feet in the sand. The beautiful sunset was breathtaking! As for the food, well it was definitely "tourist prices". The 6 of us (minus the 2 kids) paid almost SGD200 for dinner!

The Semiyak stretch is definitely good for families. Lined with shops, restaurants, supermarkets, cafes and convenience stores, you need not worry about running out of food or essentials. We spent quite a bit of time at this little outdoor cafe just outside the main supermarket where we got our daily dosage of beer, fruits and snacks. There is even an Internet centre right above the cafe.

It will definitely not take us another 8 years to go back to Bali. See you soon!